Nashville 1-0 Milwaukee (shootout)
April 18, 1997 — Ezell Park (Nashville, Tenn.)
Scoring Summary
Metros go west, win pro debut
(Nashville Tennessean, 04.19.97)
By Jim Wyatt
Nashville looked to its west coast connections in the city’s professional soccer debut, and the California kids responded.
Motivated time and time again by outstanding stops by goalkeeper Randy Dedini, the Nashville Metros were finally able to celebrate their season-opening win last night when Dedini turned away Milwaukee’s Jake Provan on the final kick in a 1-0 shootout victory.
After the two teams played 90 minutes of regulation and 15 minutes of sudden-death overtime without scoring a goal, Nashville outshot Milwaukee 2-1 in the shootout to pick up the win, as Vinny Martinez and Luis Berbari netted goals.
Dedini, from Chico, Calif., stopped Milwaukee in four of its five shots on goal during the shoutout, including Provan’s kick, which prompted hundreds of kids to swarm the goalie after the team’s first professional victory.
“We felt good about things with Randy back there,” said Martinez, from Livermore, Calif. “In practice, we hit only 2-of-10 against him so what he did tonight didn’t surprise any of us. It feels great to start things out with a win.”
Dedini’s defensive play ended what has to be considered a successful night for the city’s first pro soccer franchise. An announced crowd of 2,630 turned out at Ezell Soccer Park off Harding Place.
Because the win was in a shootout, the Metros pick up one point in the A-League standings. Three points are awarded for a victory in regulation or overtime.
Martinez scored the team’s first professional goal, while another Californian, Berbari, from Burbank, also stepped up big with a shootout goal after playing all over the field during a back-and-forth defensive battle.
Metros coach Greg Petersen said he wasn’t surprised that the team’s defense looked a bit sharper than its offense, considering four of the squad’s top offensive players still haven’t arrived.
In all, Nashville was without six of its players, something which forced many of the Metros to play out of position for a good part of the night. Mark Foster, a defensive specialist, played a good deal on the offensive end, while the team’s backup goalie, Michael LaBerge, was also summoned to play in the field.
“Being the perfectionist that I am, I must say there are some things we need to work on,” Petersen said. “But I can’t say enough about what the guys did tonight. The crowd was great, and it’s going to get better and better once soccer fans find out more about what we have going on here. This was just the start.”
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